


Zapped!

by Catbells



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 09:38:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catbells/pseuds/Catbells
Summary: A series of unfortunate events in the future brings a dire threat to 21st century Earth.  Will the Doctor save the day, or will his oldest frenemy cause him to lose his way?





	Zapped!

**Author's Note:**

> Occurs somewhere between ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’.

The Tardis hummed and chirped into life as the Doctor readied her for another adventure.

Clara was full of breathless anticipation.  She smiled at the Doctor, glowing inside and out.  Once and for all she knew this is where, in all of existence, she really belonged.  There was no doubt about it now.  This life is all she could ever want. 

She couldn’t believe she nearly walked away; came so close to giving up all this _amazement_.  In the Tardis, with the Doctor.  There was no other place in the universe she would rather be. 

She laughed in giddy abandon as the Doctor playfully span her on the spot, before steadying her body. He then proceeded to spin her mind as he spun her his tales of where they should go next.

“We can go to the Galaxy of Sighs and sip contentment cocktails while watching the promenade of the ever-decreasing spirals of the unenlightened consciousness – oh, what a spectacle!”

“Contentment cocktails?”

“Yes, cocktails made of liquid gratification.  It’s quite the thing.” He circled around to the other side of the console, clicked a few buttons and returned, bending to briefly look Clara square in the eye before swooping away. He continued “Or we could go and see the Kiss of Rain on the Burning Tundra Flows”

“That sounds beautiful.”

“Well, it’s actually not so much beautiful, more hilarious.  The greatest of the Daxtoporian farces.  You’ll laugh so much you’ll need a new pair of shoes.”

Clara laughed and was curious to find out why.  “Yes! Yes, let’s go there.”

The Doctor approved “Yes! Daxtoporia and shoe-wrecking farce it is.”

“Uhm, Doctor, can we swing by my flat first? I, uh, I just need to pick up …a thing.”

“A thing?”

“Yes. A thing.” Clara’s dimples deepened as her lips disappeared in an inward purse, obviously concealing the true purpose of her request, while her eyes widened, imploring the Doctor to do as she asked.

The Doctor, looking down at Clara intrigued, replied “Well, if it’s for a ‘thing’, then how can I possibly refuse?”

The Doctor tapped the controls, thrust a lever and the carousel swirled above their heads. The lights flashed and chased around the control room as the Tardis ricocheted through the time vortex and onwards to Clara’s little flat.

As they whirled through space and time, the Doctor eyed Clara from across the console, watching her talk about this and that, everything and nothing, and anything which had amused her during the past few days. They whiled away the journey back to Earth with jokes, teasing, a dangerous undercurrent of flirtation and a few carefully chosen reminiscences, drawing closer to each other, as the Tardis brought them closer to Earth.

He was pleased she had stopped visibly grieving.  He found it too hard to see her like that, and had kept scant company alone with her during the dark months which followed their reunion.  Instead during that period he filled their time together with copious adventures, surrounded by so many people, their voices, their stories, their lives, drowning out all the other _noise_ \- a welcome distraction for both of them, from their darker selves.

While Clara didn’t avoid the subject of Danny, she did avoid any meaningful revelation about those times. Danny had died. Her actions had given him pain, and without doubt changed his timeline, possibly even ending his life. Whereas without her influence he could have…. Danny was dead and her guilt still bled.

The Doctor couldn’t give Clara what she silently demanded in her every breath, her every glance.  She so obviously needed _him_ to feel guilt, wanted  _him_ to apologise.  It’s what she so desperately craved, so she could absolve herself of the responsibility of her sins, but the Doctor never granted her that pardon.  She would have to deal with that herself, and come back all the stronger for her genuine absolution.  And so, for now, all the words were left unsaid.

Back to the task at hand; Clara definitely didn’t want to tell the doctor the real reason for their pit stop, not before they had arrived, just in case there was an ‘inadvertent’ detour.  Back at her flat Clara revealed the true motive for her return there.  She wanted to pick up her aquarium, and her pet fish.

The Doctor was amused by such a characteristically human trait.  Sweet Clara, having and caring for a pet.  “Ah, homo sapiens, so quaintly domestic.”  However, both companions knew what this act implied.  

She was shifting her main residence to the Tardis.  Sure, she would still stay at her flat from time to time, when it was easier for work or to give the Doctor an opportunity to miss her but from now on her main abode, her pets, her _home_ was aboard the Tardis.  And that suited them both perfectly.

“And so, to Daxtoporia”


End file.
